All posts by clairey11

With Halloween just out of the way, Christmas seems to have come early to the capital, with shops already stocking their christmas range, putting up decorations in store and even playing the well known Christmas classics.

Courtesy of The Dome Edinburgh

The Dome in George Street has always been renowned for its extravagant decorations, which captivate many tourists during the festive period. They have already put up the decorations outside the premises, decorating the collesium style pillars with lights and wreaths. When questioned on why they decorate the place a month prior to the Christmas period, a spokeswoman stated that it was a ‘very hectic time’ and that the work on the decorations over the past few years has always been scheduled at the end of October/beginning of November as permission and a license is needed. It is also done as a ‘build up to the festive season’.

It is not just The Dome that is in the christmas spirit, many shops such as Tesco, Boots, Asda and clothing stores such as Primark and Next have already started stocking christmas products. Marks & Spencers have their christmas food extensively advertised around store. including brochures which enable you to place your order for christmas dinner! Claire’s Accessories have also opted into the Christmas spirit by playing Christmas music every so often to put consumers in the christmas mood even more.

The reason behind this is a clever marketing scheme that is to encourage consumers to start purchasing for Christmas already, despite there being almost another two month until Christmas day. If consumers see the products and hear the music, it will start to cause a panic into thinking that the time is running out and therefore they will start to think about shopping sooner. They may even purchase items or presents from that shop due to this influence as they realise time is ‘running out’. Although this ‘scheme’ is in place every year, many people are still rushing to the shops on Christmas eve, so does the scheme really work?

Edinburgh’s Christmas officially starts on Thursday November 26th with the usual big wheel, traditional German Christmas Market and Ice Rink in Princes Street Gardens. Radio station Forth One is also broadcasting live from the opening day 10am – 2pm. As well as the Gardens extravaganza, Edinburgh will be full of the Christmas Spirit with the renowned event ‘The Great Scottish Santa Run!‘ and new event ‘Edinburgh Sparkles!‘. Children are also well catered for as they are able to visit Santa during this period at ‘Santas Reindeer Garden’ situated in Princes Street Gardens or even visit ‘Santa’s Igloo Village’ for a storytelling session with Santa.

Edinburgh has always been renowned for it’s Christmas period, attracting hundreds of tourists to the capital to attend the events. It seems this year will be no different, even if it has come around earlier than expected!

After teen sensation Miley Cyrus deleted her account on social networking site ‘Twitter’ a fortnight ago, it seems to have sparked some notice in the way celebrities are using the website.

Social networking phenomenon ‘Twitter’ has reached its popularity thanks to the many celebrities to posting to the site daily answering the simple question ‘What are you doing?’. The site allows you to view celebrities posts, ‘follow’ them and see what they are saying on your own twitter homepage and even have the chance to reply to them, in hope for an answer back. It is a new revolution to contact celebrities easily any place, any time and is at the person’s decision whether to reply or not and what content they post.

The newest celebrity to join in against the site is Lily Allen. Today she has been rumoured to have quit the site as it has apparently been interfering with her personal life. She has not updated her profile in just under a month and the last words she ‘twittered’ on the 28th of September were;
“I am a neo-luddite, goodbye.”

This is interesting as a neo-luddite is someone who does not believe in the use of technology and as the stories have been told today in the Daily Mirror she has apparently rid off her computer, Mac Book and Blackberry to stop her having a temptation to go on the site. Could this be a new turn in Lily Allen’s life? Or has she just become rebellious towards the site?

Many celebrities have opted to go without a twitter page, thinking it could interfere with their lives, yet as stated before with it being at your own discretion what is posted the blame for content cannot be shifted to anyone but yourself.

Chart-topping band Mcfly had a unique experience yesterday, having their number one hit single “Star Girl” played in space to the astronauts, thanks to the overwhelming response of their fans on social networking site Twitter.

NASA launched a competition on Twitter for 35 people to talk live to the astronauts, yet Mcfly fans had another plan in mind. Their devoted fans overwhelmed NASA’s twitter page requesting them to play the single in space. “Star Girl” contains lyrics such as “dance on the milkyway” and “surfing the sun as it starts to rise”. The space station are played songs of their choice every morning, yet this is the first time they had no say in the song choice. NASA were shocked by the response with millions of requests and decided to make the wish come true. Fans were able to tune in live to the space station, streamed online via NASA’s website, to witness the event.

'McFLY-ing Into Space'

The date of the event was also just 2 days from the release date of the single in 2006 (23rd October) making it an excellent way to celebrate the singles third year of success.

Mcfly have never been shy of admitting their love for space, particularly lead vocalist and guitarist Tom Fletcher who as a young boy even attended space camp. Bassist Dougie Poynter even has a large tattoo of a space scene on his chest. Earlier in the year they were also trying to complete deal with Richard Branson to be the first band in space, yet there is no news if this will actually occur, perhaps this happening is even a sign of things to come in the future.

At the time of the event fans yet again showed their thanks to NASA posting on twitter “star girl in space” and again entering it into the ‘Trending Topics’ at number one, making it the most talked about topic on twitter at that time.

After the event Tom Fletcher posted to NASA on his twitter saying,
“Thankyou SO much!!! We were watching here in London. Was brilliant. Our fans should be very proud of themselves!!!”

Danny Jones, lead guitarist and singer in the band also stated that it was a “dream come true”.

The event has given publicity not only to the band but also NASA, making Mcfly fans aware of the events in Space and witnessing the space station orbiting around earth to one of their favourite band’s songs.

This event has clearly shown that a large fan base really can make dreams come true for their idols.